Goa (Part 2)

For anyone unsure why the blog updates have been slow, my tablet literally went up in a puff of smoke, a motherboard component burnt out. Not really repairable without replacing the board, so now just carrying around a chunk of metal for no reason and it's a pain using phones for blog updates. Not yet equipped with a laptop, however where we currently are has a shared one and WiFi, so we're able to scrape through a few blog posts whilst we carry on our hunt for a cheap computer for traveling. If anyone has a suggestion for getting a cheap laptop, we're all ears. Shipping from England to India isn't cheap either!

So we left off in Palolem, home to many a brit looking for a cheap beach and sunshine escape. We expected this from previous, so nothing particularly new here. Still a gorgeous area, if not strictly what people would consider the real India, and it gave Diana a chance to get back to feeling better.

The hotel room was a welcome slice of luxury (bear in mind, we've not even done a month at this point.. what the future brings, who knows!) and certainly aided Diana in a speedy recovery (along with her small stash of various drugs). It would probably have helped more however if we hadn't converted the room into incredibly humid swamp land. At this point, we had a fair amount of washing to sort out, and turned the room into a hotel room/laundrette, with every nook and cranny filled with various over and under garments. Unfortunately, very little air circulation turned this into damp smelling clothes, and what felt like walking into a thick mist upon opening the door. Everything was damp to the touch. Needless to say it wasn't pleasant, but the doctor did say stay out of dust, so that was a success, and a valuable lesson learned.

We checked out of the hotel as we wanted to find somewhere a lot cheaper to stay. The previous day we spotted a guest house where they had a room for around 500 a night, so grabbed our smaller bags and took a walk towards there (around 2km). En route, we were flagged over and asked if we needed a room, and as we had no commitment to the other location, took a look.

The room was basic, but about as kitted out as the previous hotel, we still had an albeit smaller TV and hot water, although this ran out in approximately 0.6 seconds, so mostly cold showers again. But it was fine, it cost a third of the previous room AND it had a vague balcony with a washing line, so we could avoid our previous experience and went to grab our bags and make ourselves homely.

Lunch time, and we had spotted a place on our walk between the hotels that caught our eye, a restaurant that promises healthy food and brown bread, something we had forgotten existed. Can't hurt to try and we took a look at the menu and the prices were fine.

Well, wow. We ended up coming here for the next three days, it was amazing. Now, this could be because we've been living off masala and roti for however long now, and it was actually simply average, but the food was incredible. Diana ordered a rice salad for under 200 rs that was far too big for one person, I had poached eggs on crunchy fresh wholemeal bread, and the apple juice.. I like cloudy apple juice, but this was basically more of a pulp, like it was actually due to become cider. If anyone should go to the area, especially if you have been living on spices for weeks, come here. Brilliant.

From here, most of the time was spent on the beach, either in the restaurants or on sun beds, making the most of the peace and slow pace whilst we could. Mostly uneventful, except, and I can't believe it happened, but Diana was attacked again. This time from behind, and from a much larger perpetrator, the screams (and other people's laughs) still haunt me. The video below should reveal more.

Quite rightly dubbed 'Ruby-Moo' by us, the Indian cow version of Ruby has appeared before us.

So now it's the night before Diana's birthday, and she plans to go to an ashtanga yoga class in the morning, lunch, sit on the beach, get a massage, shower, cocktails. No problem, and fits in with my plan nicely, as I would need time to buy something secretly and this was the first, and only, opportunity to do it how I wanted. For tonight though, we go to one of the restaurants on the beach with live music. More like an open mic night, we hang around long enough for someone to absolutely destroy 'The House Of The Rising Sun' and leave to find another one. This time we find a much better musician, a guy called Anjel Ferry - very great evening was had and we retire after not too many drinks ready for the next day.

Yoga starts at 8.30, finishes at 10. I had an hour and a half to do what I need to do. Unfortunately I had not had a lot of sleep, I was utterly shattered, and we were out of the room by 8.10, I could have easily slept the extra time. Still, this was important, and I had done my research and the place I wanted was around 40 minutes walk away. I took Diana towards her yoga class and set off in the opposite direction.

Around 10 minutes along, a guy pulls up on his motorcycle asking where I'm going. As I wasn't entirely sure, I just said canacona town, he said he was heading that way, so I hopped on the back.

Unfortunately where I was and where he took me (chaudy) wasn't exactly much closer to my destination, and just meant I had to walk back where we just came from. But that was fine, I had been itching to get back on a bike again anyway.

So I walked to the place marked on the map, to look for what I needed, well aware of my short time limit. But it wasn't quite as simple as following the map, as apparently the map was entirely wrong. After walking along road, dirt paths, forest and active train tracks, I came to the conclusion what I was looking for either didn't exist, or was indeed in a paddy field. I turn back (getting a more useful lift off a guy with a scooter this time) and make it back just in time, hot and frustrated (Diana believed I was looking for a nearby ATM).

We have lunch at our new favorite establishment, and go sit on the beach for a short while and given a flyer about a silent disco that night we decided attend, before Diana goes off for her massage. I had another 45 minutes, this time I just walk into a couple of shops nearby, not quite the quality I was hoping for but at this point I was simply hoping the moment is what was most important.

After around fifteen minutes and numerous attempts to sell me all sorts of things I don't need or even remotely want, I was successful and hurried back to the room to shower, prepare and get dressed and work out what I was going to do.

Diana came back around 5.30, relaxed and vaguely beaten up from her massage. Unfortunately for me, that meant she was in far less of a rush than I was, hoping to catch the sun setting at around half 6. I must have asked her, in many different and nicer ways, just how bloody long did she need to get ready, which apparently wasn't suspicious even though I'm never in a hurry. I spend the time trying to be discreet as possible and contemplating back up plans if things don't work out.

We FINALLY leave, it looked dark outside, so I'm preparing plan b in my head. We leave the hotel towards the beach and it's gorgeous, the sun had just set, so I stop Diana to admire the view.

At this point, I didn't feel at all nervous. It felt right, no, perfect, and I had no concerns. Diana tells me I stuttered my words which I don't remember, because I didn't feel worried about it, I wasn't certain what to say or expect, but as planned I told her what I wanted to say,  got down on one knee, produced the ring that had taken all levels of stress to source and asked her if she would be willing to spend the rest of her life with me.

Whether out of pity or shock, I don't know, but she's now entered a verbal contract I intend to hold. The rest of the night involved lots of smiling, laughing, phone calls and a fairly soggy face with smudged makeup (I just couldn't hold myself together). It was truly magical and will now always be one of the happiest memories of my life, and I'm incredibly happy to be traveling with my wonderful fiancee.

Sunset at the restaurant slightly later

Many cocktails later, we head to the silent disco, an event where music is not played after 11pm and everyone is issued wireless headphones with two different music styles to switch between, which I found to be great fun. Strangely eerie if you turn off the headphones though, drunk people bouncing around in silence apart from poorly sung versions of whatever they were listening to. At this point I gave Oli and Meg a call which was great, a much needed catch up.

Queen of the world!

We wake up in the morning, room spinning, my head throbbing and feeling a little ill, but still very happy from the previous night. The early afternoon was mostly a write off for me anyway.

We check out of the room and put the bags in the reception, which was just a cupboard in the hotel with a mattress, and work out the rest of our day. We have to get to Chennai tomorrow, which involves an 18 hour coach trip tonight, which will be in the next post.

All the best everyone.

Jonno and the future Mrs Mihalop.

Diana:

So you know the main bits but I just thought I would add my version of what happened. As Jonno has said I had no idea what he was planning on my birthday and I can't believe how many signs I missed! I am so happy but am a little bit sad I can't celebrate with everyone in England for a while. After I had finished blubbing and we sat down in the restaurant for our first set of cocktails, we thought we should probably inform both of our parents of the news. However, the phone signal and internet connection was horrendous which then created an entertaining scene of Jonno calling his parents and shouting SKYPE SKYPE SKYPE down the phone in the hope that the message would get through so we could talk to them on skype. Being over 4000 miles away isn't easy! I also called my mum and even though successfully managed to get through I wasnt quite sure how to tell her the news, so ended up saying 'jonno asked me a question' to which my mum replied 'what question?' as if i was just calling to tell her that Jonno asked me where we wanted to go and eat or something.

Jonno has also not realised how much women like to talk and plan weddings. He looked pretty stunned when i mentioned the words 'dress', 'bridesmaids', 'ceremony' and 'guests' about an hour after the proposal. I dont know if he quite knows what he is getting himself in for!  Anyway, thank you to everyone who  has sent us messages to congratulate us and I am really looking forward to another reason for a party! (and of course getting married to the most amazing man)!!